How to Survive Without a Meal Plan in College

Navigating college life without a meal plan can be a daunting yet empowering experience. Eating at the dining hall often meant I had to get extra creative or settle for basic and often unhealthy options like pizza, pasta, or salad. It didn’t help that I was a picky eater and semi-vegetarian. This and probably drinking too much beer at frat parties, led me to the classic freshman 15. I opted out of it and had to learn how to survive without a meal plan. This shift was a relief financially, and better for me in the long-term. In this post, I’m sharing my journey on how to survive without a meal plan. Whether you’re considering ditching the dining hall or looking for ways to eat healthier on campus, hopefully, this will be helpful to you.

Learn how to cook

The first and most obvious step to survive without a meal plan is learning how to cook. I’m not going to lie, I struggled a lot with this one. Before, I could barely boil eggs, and that was as far as my cooking skills went. But I had to learn how to cook – quickly.

Nowadays, there are plenty of easy recipes and cooking hacks. I usually just go on TikTok or Pinterest to find some easy recipes that look appealing.

The most important thing when it comes to cooking is being patient. I have ruined many meals in the past solely because I got impatient and tried to get the food to cook faster. However, when you force something to cook faster, the flavor isn’t there. I once also gave myself mild food poisoning because I didn’t cook my salmon well. So if you’re going to take away anything from this section, be patient, good food takes time.

Another mistake I made was expecting to cook complicated meals. It is better to start simple and go from there. If you have zero cooking skills, I’d recommend first learning how to cook basic things such as rice, quinoa, pasta, and chicken. Then, you might want to start making simple meals such as chicken stir fry rice, quinoa buddha bowls, and you can never go wrong with just chicken and rice.

Get an air fryer

I’m in my twenties, so no longer a college freshman, yet I will still cook full meals using my air fryer only. It honestly makes everything so much easier, faster, healthier, and just better. There are tons of air fryer recipes that are simple and easy.

Get kitchen supplies

Of course, you can’t cook if you don’t have the right kitchen supplies. Below is a list of the kitchen basics you might need. You don’t have to buy them all, your relatives can hand them down to you, that way you could get them for free. Some places where you might find kitchen supplies at an affordable price are ROSS, Target, other discount stores, and obviously Amazon.

At least one pot
At least one pan
Blender – I have this magic bullet blender and it works wonders.
Cutting board
Knife sharp enough to cut veggies and/or meat
Large spoon
Mixing bowl
Spatula
Tongs
Plates
Tupperware
Utensils

Set a budget

Grocery shopping can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. If you set a budget, it will help to just stick to the food you need and it will help to not go overboard with snacks and other junk food. Consider grocery shopping once a week or every two weeks, and you should buy the foods you eat the most in bulk. This way you can save time and money. This means, that on those days when you’re craving take-out, perhaps southern comfort food, you might just have saved enough money to order something.

The amount of money you spend on groceries depends on where you shop. I usually shop at ALDI and Trader Joe’s. They have the most affordable produce by far!

I recommend using apps like iBotta to get cash back when scanning receipts. If you’re new to iBotta, use code “biwtvsc” and you’ll get $5 added to your account.

Plan your weekly meals

The key is to plan exactly what you’re going to eat during the week. Take into account the items you already have in your fridge and pantry and put some meals together. You can use your notes app or if you’re type-A like me, you can use Notion to organize your meals.

This is helpful because it can be easy to get carried away and buy a lot of unhealthy food, as well as, waste the food you already have.

Cook only once or twice per week

If you’re not a great cook like me, you’ll be happy to just do it once or twice a week. The way to do this the right way is to prepare large portions and store the food in glass containers in your fridge. Why glass containers? Well, they’re healthier because, unlike plastic containers, they do not release chemicals into your food.

I prefer to prepare the ingredients instead of full meals. For example, I would cook one or two proteins, and one or two carbs, and would chop the veggies so they’re ready to eat. This can look like cooking one cup of rice, one cup of quinoa, air-frying one pound of chicken, and chopping all of my veggies so they’re ready to eat.

The microwave will save your life

When you don’t have time to cook and you’re hungry you can just microwave a quick meal. Frozen foods are delicious and quick, but they’re not healthy.

But luckily frozen foods aren’t the only thing you can cook in the microwave, try this 23 Dorm Room Meals You Can Make In A Microwave.

I used these tips to survive without a meal plan throughout college and I hope they’re helpful to you.